Kate's Valentine: Novelette (Thistle Do Flowers Book 0.5)

by Christina Butrum

  Before he could say what had him concerned, she could see the wilting as she approached the glass. “The flowers are beginning to wilt.”

  That was impossible. Jessica had told her she had just gotten them in. With the proper care, they would last a lot longer than a few days. What the heck was going on?

  “Have you worked with flowers or plants before?” he asked, his tone friendly. She shook her head. She had to admit she knew nothing about flowers and plants. She had never stepped foot in a flower shop until she had moved to Iowa and met Jessica. “Have you been following the directions on the tags for each of them?”

  He was now walking along the displays, taking time with each case, checking over each bundle of plants and flowers.

  “Yes, I do exactly what the tag says to do, for each of them,” Kate said. She had no idea what was happening to the flowers to cause them to wilt. All she knew was that wilting eventually meant death and she didn’t want them to die. She needed each and every one of them for the Valentine’s Day gifts and the bundles she would be creating for Jessica’s business to succeed over the holiday. She couldn’t risk losing them, not on her watch. “Maybe I should call Jessica.”

  Shaking his head, he opened the display case and said, “No, there’s no need to panic. Flowers can wilt for many reasons.”

  As much as she didn’t want to bother Jessica’s vacation, she didn’t want to take advice from her main competitor either. How was she to be sure he was helping and not making things worse? She kept a watchful eye on him as he touched each plant.

  “Sometimes plants become excessively stressed,” he said. Only when he noticed Kate was looking at him like he had lost his mind, he explained, “Cutting the roses stresses them the most. Also, when they were cut can affect whether the flower wilts early. If Jessica runs her business like I do, which I’m sure she does, she just received these flowers before leaving.”

  “Yes, they’re new here by a few days at most,” Kate said, as she stood by him, making sure he wasn’t harming the plants. Even though they were already wilting, she didn’t want him to pull a fast one to ruin Jessica’s business. She didn’t know him, and from what she had heard from Jessica, he couldn’t be trusted when it came to business—competitors at their finest.

  “My guess is shock from being cut,” he said. “Their leaves look healthy, as far as I can tell, so that rules out any sort of fungal infection.”

  “Fungal infection?”

  Amused by her reaction, he laughed as he moved back to the case with the wilting roses, “Yes, a fungal infection. It causes their foliage to turn yellow and wilt.”

  She had no idea there was so much to know about plants. But then again, she hadn’t thought it’d be too much of a challenge to take care of them either, and here she was killing it—literally.

  “Make sure they have enough water,” he continued with his teaching moment. “Add a tad bit of diluted fertilizer, and they should come back around.”

  He made everything seem so simple. Like, add some magic and be prepared to be in awe at the results. Maybe her mother was right; she really didn’t have a green thumb.

  Feeling incompetent with the idea of fertilizing them by herself, and not wanting to bother Jessica, she asked, “Would you mind helping me with that?”

  The perfect, bright, white smile reappeared on his face. “Sure, I can do that.”

  Jordan Hughes didn’t seem like too bad of a guy, regardless of what Jessica had said. Of course, Kate understood they were competitors, but he was a nice guy for offering to help her with this issue. She could only hope and pray that it resolved quickly.

  “Thank you so much for helping with this,” Kate said. “I must not have a green thumb.”

  Laughing, he said, “Brown thumbs are more common than you think, but I’m sure, with a little bit of experience, you’d be able to handle all of these plants and more.”

  “Maybe you’re right, but for now, I’ll have to try my best just for the week,” Kate admitted.

  She had never wished days to hurry by, until now. She couldn’t wait to get these flowers and plants out of here before she killed them. She was bad luck for these plants, and Valentine’s Day needed to get here quick, no matter how hopeful Jordan was that they’d be all right.

  ♥♥♥

  By mid-week, Kate had realized an improvement with the potted plants, but the roses were wilting more. She had read online after her encounter with Jordan, trying to refresh her knowledge on the care of the plants.

  Taking it upon herself to invest time in reading about something that didn’t interest her, Kate felt she was doing the best she could. Refusing to call Jessica, Kate pulled out the notes she had written down the night before.

  She had confirmed that Jordan had been telling the truth about fungal infections, transplanting shock, and water consumption. What she hadn’t confirmed was why these plants were wilting. Today was the day she needed to prep them for sale. She needed to wrap them in pretty pink, red, and violet colored plastics and add a touch of love by adding a card for the customers who would be purchasing them in the next day or two. She couldn’t have wilted plants included in the sales. It wouldn’t look good for the business, and it certainly wouldn’t be appealing to the significant others of the customers who would buy them.

  She needed to do something about it. But what? She had already checked the water level in the vase, making sure there was enough. The potted plants were easier to figure out: too much water would cause waterlogging. If the soil felt too damp, she held off on watering that plant for a day. Who would’ve guessed that watering plants could be so temperamental?

  The foliage on each plant, aside from the wilting, looked good. Bright green and healthy... which, according to her sources, ruled out fungal infection.

  She had read about temperature affecting the stress level. Maybe Jordan was right, and that’s all that was wrong with them—they were still adjusting to the environment. But, given the number of days they had been here, she couldn’t understand why they would still be in shock. The temperature of the display cases was set at a steady, cool temperature without any noticeable fluctuations over the last few days.

  Pulling out the flowers she thought would make it until Valentine’s Day, she placed them on the knick-knack table by the display cases. She needed several flowers to make dozens of bouquets. Jessica had left strict orders to prepare a certain number of single roses, dozen roses and bundles of other wild flowers, too, because not everyone searches for roses and chocolates on Valentine’s Day.

  Kate’s opinion on Valentine’s Day didn’t matter. Not this year. She was single, with a tad bit of envy for the ones who had someone to call their own. A reason to enjoy going home every night after a long day of work. She had given up on love a long time ago, long before moving to Iowa. She had other plans now; that didn’t involve falling in love. She would protect her heart from anyone who tried to make their way in.

  Wrapping a glitter-filled plastic sheet around a bouquet of wild flowers, she couldn’t help smelling them. Putting her face straight into the center of them, she discerned a multitude of different smells. She would never say anything about hating flowers, even if she had bad luck, or brown thumbs, and couldn’t keep them alive.

  The bell above the door chimed as a group of teenagers walked in. Of course, she had to witness young ones in love. Valentine’s Day didn’t discriminate against anyone, except her. Letting go of the self-pitying thoughts, she stood from her spot on the floor and greeted the young couple.

  With slouched hats and cold noses, they made their way around, looking in each of the cases as they held hands and mumbled cute mushy things to each other. Rolling her eyes, Kate turned her attention back to the job she had been assigned.

  She couldn’t help but watch the young couple as they made their way to the counter with “the perfect plant.” The girl was giddy and accepting of the boy’s generosity. After he had paid for it, with his weekly allowance Kate gu
essed, the teenaged girl kissed him on his cheek and thanked him with a squeal of delight.

  Feeling grossed out from all of the mushiness she had just witnessed, she continued wrapping and taping, paying special attention to the leaves and petals of each flower and plant. She couldn’t say that she hated Valentine’s Day, because it had once been her favorite holiday, aside from Christmas. What was better than waiting for someone to display their love to you by handing you a box of chocolates and a dozen roses? Granted, she had only received a few of these gifts in her lifetime. But how great they had been was dismissed when she realized that for the last two years of her marriage, her husband had been cheating on her with one of her best friends. This was the reason that prompted her to make the move out of state—choosing Iowa as a nice place to live.

  The divorce had been finalized a few short months after her move. She was thankful it hadn’t taken any longer than it had. Moving to a new town was hard, let alone the thought of people wanting to know your business—why you moved and all of the gory details behind it. But this town was different. She hadn’t received glares from faces as she made her entrance into town. She had been welcomed by friendly people with faces full of smiles, and helping hands. No one cared to hear the real reason she had moved to Iowa from Arizona. She hadn’t told anyone except for Jessica. And unlike many of her old friends, Jessica hadn’t said a word to anyone.

  She really did love it here. The small town had festivals year round. It had a lot to offer the community throughout the seasons and she was thankful to be included in them, with their annual baking contest at the end of September, right at the beginning of fall and all. She loved to bake in her free time, which was rare to find once school started back up, but she made sure to make time to bake a recipe of perfection for the prize winning Salted Caramel Pie—her grandmother’s favorite.

  The bell above the door chimed once again, interrupting the recollection of her memories. Standing up to greet the customer, she nearly tripped over the pile of flowers she had placed by her.

  “Careful not to fall,” the voice boomed across the way as the familiar face made its way closer to her.

  “I’ve always been a bit on the clumsy side,” she admitted, blushing from the embarrassment Jordan had just witnessed. “Shouldn’t you be seeing to your business?”

  Taken aback by her comment, he stopped in his tracks. “That’s not how I meant it, and you know it,” she explained.

  “I don’t know, it’s hard telling what you women really mean when you say things,” he said, obviously joking by the look of amusement on his face. Ignoring her reaction, he said, “I came by to see... to check on the flowers.”

  Raising an eyebrow, wondering what he was really up to, she said, “They’re fine.”

  Disagreeing with her, he shook his head and flipped down the oversized parka hat from his head. He pointed toward the case with the wilting flowers and said, “I can see from here that’s not true.”

  Kate backed up and moved over to the case as he walked toward it. “They’re fine.”

  He furrowed his brows and pointed at the display case, “That doesn’t look fine to me. Fine wouldn’t be wilting and losing petals.”

  “Losing petals?” She hadn’t seen any loose petals lying around when she had checked on them earlier.

  Making her way to the case he was looking into, she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Nearly half of the flowers she had left in the case had begun losing their petals. One by one, they had dropped from the depressed flowers.

  “What am I going to do now?” Kate asked, panicked at the thought of losing sales this week. Jessica wouldn’t be happy about that, and wouldn’t be too impressed with the work Kate had done for her—if she would even call it work.

  Reaching a hand out and placing it on her shoulder, Jordan said, “You’re going to relax and not panic.”

  “It’s too late for that,” she assured him with a fake smile. She could feel the anxiety as it crept upon her. She hated the fact that this was happening. How on earth had she failed something so easy as taking care of the flowers. It was only a week for Pete’s sake.

  Picking up the flowers from their vases, and a few of their petals, Jordan sat quietly as he examined each of them. “I’m not sure what’s causing this to happen. They should be thriving.”

  “Thriving?” Kate questioned a word she hadn’t heard before.

  “You know, doing well,” Jordan said, placing the wilted flowers back in their spots. “Not dying.”

  “Perfect,” Kate said, squatting down to pick up the pile of the “doing well and thriving” flowers she had placed on the floor to work with. Not wanting to take a chance with anything drastic happening to them, she carried them to an empty foldout table and set them down. It had limited her working space, but she wasn’t about to take any chances, what with her luck the way it was.

  “Let me think on what could be happening,” Jordan said, sitting in a nearby antique chair that was surrounded by leaves of green from plants that crowded the area. “You’ve kept water in the vases?”

  “Yes,” she said, nodding. “I even checked the soil of the potted plants, and held off a day if it seemed too damp. They’re obviously doing well.”

  The plants were vibrant shades of green. They were healthy-looking compared to the flowers. With just a few days before Valentine’s Day, she could only hope that they would stay well and not opt out like the flowers were trying to do.

  “Let me do some research,” Jordan said, standing from the chair. His six-foot frame cast a shadow from the sun that was setting behind them. “Will you be around tomorrow?”

  “Yes, of course,” Kate said, panicking once again at the thought of how many days she had until Valentine’s Day.

  “Okay, let me do some research and I’ll get back to you,” Jordan said, making his way for the door. “Keep doing what you’re doing. You’re doing everything right.”

  She didn’t feel that way. Everything seemed to be going horribly wrong, and before she could tell him so, he waved and closed the door behind him. She was left to wonder what the heck had happened to the flowers to make them so unhappy, and she realized then how fitting it was for the flowers to wilt and lose their petals. It was almost like they too, in a representation of love, had lost hope.

  ♥♥♥

  She had spent most of the day in a fog, concerned with how she would bring the flowers to life. She was no superhuman, she had no super powers or magic to cast on them to withstand their fate. She had no idea what she would do if they finally caved in and left her without hope of high sales for her friend.

  The kids had noticed how distant she was, and they kept their distance from her, leaving her to sit and think and overthink about what had gone wrong. For starters, Jessica leaving the duty of flower keeping to her had been the first mistake. And second, she should’ve known that something that sounded so easy wouldn’t be. This was turning out to be the biggest challenge she had ever faced, aside from a cheating husband, a divorce, and a leap of faith to move to a whole new state. Compared to all of that, this should’ve been a walk in the park. Except, this wasn’t a walk in the park, unless of course, you add in the few piles of dog poop and unraked, mildewed leaves.

  Antsy once again to hear the bell to dismiss school, she waited near the door and did her best to keep the kids in a single file line—allowing little Johnny to take the lead. The kid was more excited than she was about the school day coming to an end. He couldn’t stand still and his actions mirrored how she felt.

  The bell rang and she damned near sprinted to her car. She was dreading her arrival at the flower shop for two reasons, wilting deadening flowers and Jordan Hughes. She couldn’t help the random thoughts that had occurred last night. They had overwhelmed her—out of nowhere and with no warning at all. Thoughts of how friendly Jordan Hughes actually was—maybe a little too friendly—and how handsome he was with his dark hair and dark eyes; not forgetting his perfect white sm
ile. He was incredibly handsome—more handsome than Ben Affleck—which was impressive, given how much she loved Ben Affleck. Come to think of it, Jordan shared a few similar traits with her celebrity crush.

  Arriving at Thistle Do ten minutes after leaving the school, she hurried to the door and unlocked it. Before flipping the closed sign to open, she made her way to the display case of roses. Anger mixed with worry knotted her stomach at the sight before her. More than half of them were dead and the other half were barely clinging to life.

  “This can’t be happening,” she muttered out loud, as she made her way to the door to lock it. There was no way she’d allow anyone in here to witness this mess she had gotten herself into. She needed to do something... it was less than a day until Valentine’s Day. She still had lots of wrapping and gift bundles to prepare. She needed flowers—live, bold, colored flowers.

  Scrambling to find her phone, she googled Hughes Plants’ phone number. In the back of her mind had been a realization that there was nothing more he could possibly do than she had already done. The flowers in the case were beyond help—they were deader than dead.

  Answering on the third ring, Jordan’s voice echoed through the line. “Thank you for calling Hughes...”

  She cut him off. There was no time for cute greetings and pleasantries. “Jordan, I have a big problem.”

  “Kate?”

  “Yes, can you come help me, please?” she asked, sounding desperate—which she was. Calling Jordan had been her only thought, aside from Jessica, but she didn’t want to interrupt their vacation with the news that she had somehow killed nearly every flower in her cases.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right there,” he said before hanging up.

  She felt helpless as she watched the door, waiting for him to arrive. She had no idea what he could possibly do that she hadn’t done already, but she didn’t want to do this on her own. She feared Jessica’s reaction when she heard about the catastrophe of this Valentine’s Day at Thistle Do.